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Canadian Open: Tough start for majority of Canucks in field: Feschuk

Only four of the 18 Canadians in RBC Canadian Open field finish in red numbers on day one at Glen Abbey.

Graham DeLaet, the top Canadian on the PGA Tour, follows a tee shot Thursday at Glen Abbey during the opening round of the RBC Canadian Open. DeLaet shot 72. (Rene Johnston / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

If you stood near the 18th tee at Glen Abbey Golf Club on Thursday afternoon, you could discern a festive feeling in the air. It was the opening round of the RBC Canadian Open. The skies were clear. The usual July humidity was absent.

As a tiny gallery of enthusiasts chatted happily over $8 beers and $10 vino, a cube van zooming along on a nearby thoroughfare honked its horn, its inhabitants bearing well wishes.

“Graham DeLaet, baby! Let’s go!” hollered the passerby.

Alas, for a raft of Canadian golfers, neither the day’s sunny splendour nor the populous’s good mood transmuted to the all-important scorecard. Saskatchewan’s DeLaet, the top Canadian of the moment on the PGA Tour, did OK, shooting an even-par 72. And a few of his compatriots did better, among them Ottawa-area PGA Tour rookie Brad Fritsch, who led the Maple Leaf-waving contingent with a 3-under-par 69. But on a day when plenty of the world’s best pros went at least a few strokes lower than any of Canada’s finest — American Brendan Steele slept on the first-round lead with a 7-under-par 65 — only four of the 18 Canadians in the field finished in red numbers.

Adam Hadwin was not among them. Canada’s hero at the 2011 national championship, when he finished tied for fourth, Hadwin spent some of the day in a deadlock for dead last after shooting a 6-over-par round of 78.

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So while Canada came into the tournament boasting one of the largest and most talent-rich contingents of contestants in recent memory, it came out of Day One facing the reality that only a few host nationals still have a chance of contending for a title that hasn’t been won by a citizen of the old dominion in 58 years and counting.

Perhaps that’s largely because, while Canada is represented this week by a short list of PGA Tour veterans — among them Mike Weir and Stephen Ames, who shot 73 and 74, respectively — the overwhelming majority of its entrants were amateurs or fledgling pros for whom the competitive realities of golf’s richest tour proved challenging. Toronto’s Albin Choi is, by all accounts, one of the country’s most promising young pros. The 21-year-old shot 77, which put him within a few strokes of seven other Canadians a long way from the right side of par.

Perhaps Weir had prophesied as much earlier this week. The 2003 Masters champion played at his national championship on seven different occasions before he earned the privilege of a full PGA Tour schedule. He missed the cut all seven times. As Weir was recalling this week, there’s a gulf between his sport’s smaller loops and its biggest stage. The gulf is, first and foremost, financial. There’s $5.6 million (U.S.) in prize money at stake this week, $1.008 million of which will go to the winner. The total purse in a typical tournament on the PGA Tour Canada (known as the Canadian Tour in Weir’s era) is $150,000. That’s no trivial difference.

“It’s a big purse, and you’re used to playing for (a smaller) amount of money,” Weir remembered this week. “All of a sudden, (a player can start thinking) if I make the cut, I can really make some headway. So you’re thinking about all those kind of things when you’re a young man out here. So, yeah, there is that added feel and pressure, no question.”

Weir, of course, knows something about the home-field cauldron. On the 50th anniversary of Fletcher’s win, Weir took a two-shot lead into the final two holes of the 2004 Canadian Open here at the Abbey. In one of the most heartbreaking moments in the history of Canadian sport, Weir stumbled down the stretch and surrendered the title in a playoff to Vijay Singh.

Still, this week Weir professed only good memories of playing before a home crowd while lauding the chances of the skills of his competing compatriots.

“I’m a fan. I want these guys to do great,” Weir said. “I want them to blow past my record (of eight PGA Tour wins). I’d love to see that ...”

Fans of Canadian golf can hope that, come Sunday, a player with a Maple Leaf-bearing passport thrills a crowd by ending one of domestic sport’s most lamentable streaks. Fritsch, a PGA Tour rookie, seems thusly equipped. Ditto Brantford’s David Hearn who, two weeks removed from a runner-up finish at the John Deere Classic, shot a 2-under 70 on Thursday. As for Listowel collegian Corey Conners, who finished bogey-eagle-bogey-bogey to shoot 71, who knows?

What’s nearly for certain is that Hadwin, who came within two strokes of a Canadian Open playoff two years ago, will not be that man. On Thursday, the resident of the developmental Web.com Tour acknowledged that he’d shot himself out of contention; he wasn’t the only domestic interest to take his name off the list of potential winners.

“Probably the worst round I’ve played all year,” Hadwin said.

As Hadwin played the 17th hole, his ball landed off the back of the green dangerously close to a bunker. At address he had to stand with his toes on the edge of a bunker’s lip, leaving his heels to dangle precariously in the air. Hadwin took his stance and flubbed the chip into the rough to set up another bogey.

If it was a bit like hitting a shot in ballet slippers, well, nobody said the quest to become Pat Fletcher’s long-sought successor wouldn’t be a difficult dance, indeed.

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